09/05/2018
Do you count yourself as insufficient when it comes to saving the many? When God asks you to accomplish something huge do you answer back “I can’t Father! I am just one man!” Is this your justification for disobedience? Well, that used to be my excuse, but this morning I read Romans 5:12-21 and it convicted me, but I will never again say “But Father I am just one man!” I will be obedient in the face of the great challenges He sets before me.
“For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”
Romans 5:19 ESV
(If you wish to read the full text of Romans 5:12-21 you can go to the very bottom of this documentary.)
As I read the aforementioned section of scripture I was doing so in support of thoughts I was having regarding how we (as a whole) should be obedient to God, but as I read I found myself captured by one short phrase... “one man” and how it was repeated eight times in these few verses to tell us about the arrival of eight changes in man. Repetition in the Bible is emphasis, and eight times in such a short passage is equivalent to shouting at us. So what was it yelling and proclaiming? It was loudly announcing how sin and death came into the world, and how it then exited; all through one man’s disobedience, and another’s obedience.
Adam was the first “one man”, and through this one man our scripture reading today says that condemnation, sin, death, and disobedience came to humanity. The second “one man” was Jesus Christ, and through Him came Grace, righteousness, eternal life, and obedience.
As Christians, and readers of God’s Holy Word, we all know these things to be true, but rarely are they spoken to us in such a succinct manner. So as I contemplated this scripture, in prayerful fashion, it dawned on me that the message here was much more than those things we know were lost in the Garden of Eden, or that were restored on the Cross at Golgotha and in the Garden Tomb... it was the exclamation that “one man” has incredible spiritual impact. One man brought about the downfall, and one man erased that damage... so who are we if not one man?
By our disobedience to God’s will we bring condemnation, sin, and death to not only ourselves, but quite possibly to those God has asked us to speak out to. Yet, by our obedience, we are able to bring Grace, righteousness, and eternal life to ourselves and all those we have been neglecting to speak out to. I thought of the impact I alone could have by my obedience, and the thought of men like the Apostle Paul came to mind as he brought about the conversion of so many, or in the modern day, how Billy Graham had brought untold thousands to Christ.
But, perhaps you are saying to yourself that God isn’t calling you to such an immense undertaking... yet what He is asking is still too difficult. Maybe what you are being asked to do has no apparent impact on souls... perhaps you are asked to build a building, or manage a food store, or wash linen in a hospital, where no one will see you directly. Well my friend, it never stops there... someone sees your efforts, worships in your buildings, is fed by the food you manage, or is either healed beneath those clean sheets, or goes to be with the Lord from within them. Through the course of time, one seemingly insignificant but difficult action can save thousands upon thousands of souls... it is the domino effect in action. It is God’s intricate plan unfolding... one person at a time.
There is an enormous chain of saints that stand between you and Jesus, and yet that chain is truly unbroken. You can trace your faith back to Jesus directly through the efforts of His apostles, and all those saints that stand in the years between now and then. One voice, one man or woman, one recounting of the gospel of Jesus Christ at a time. By holding hands with the one who brought you to salvation, and they with the one who saved them, and so forth, and so forth, we reach back through time to the nail scarred hands of Christ... then if you can see further, to the nursing breast of Mary, and to the Holy presence of God Himself. This is the flow of grace, and in its long and winding path it is never more than one person wide. “by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”
So what is God’s will for you today? What hard thing is He asking you to do? When you look at the threads of salvation that He desires to come through you does it strengthen your faith in His desire to help you do His will? Can you see that without your obedience there are many many hands that might never hold another as they desperately grasp for the Hand of God?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for my lineage of faith, and the unbroken chain that leads me through grace to your Son Jesus Christ, and on to you. Help me Father to be obedient to your will for me, and never let me doubt your ability to help me to accomplish even the most difficult, or demeaning requests you make of me. Your Word says that with you all things are possible, so never let me quiver and shake at the thought of those things that seem beyond my ability or challenge my pride. Open my eyes Holy Father, and let me see, and gain strength from, all of those hands I hold, because they all lead through the years to your Son Jesus and on to you. Your immense power courses through this chain like electricity, and brings your strength to bear as I obey you. I thank you Merciful Father for every hand and every Saint. I thank you for the robust and the frail, the healthy and the sick, I thank you for every human body, no matter how straight and strong or twisted and deformed, that stands or lays between your Son Jesus Christ and me. No matter how weak or sick the body, your Holy Spirit within them is strong and their obedient faith has been able to move mountains. Help me now Father so that I can become a part of this chain that continues to reach out into the future and the second coming of Jesus. On that day the circle will truly be unbroken, and your glory complete in it. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you the one True God of each individual saint throughout all eternity.
Rich Forbes
Romans 5:12-21 ESV:
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:12-21 ESV